WAHGA Jobs for May

May is the green light to go, go, go, go!  April was hot and dry, and May started the same way with a bit of glitch!  With no hint of a late frost, it’s perfect timing for planting out seedlings. 

Join us on Saturday 10th May for a seedling, plant and seed swap with time for tea and chat.  

SOWING & PLANTING

Remember to harden off your seedlings before planting out. Leave out during the day, and the cell walls of the plant harden with the breeze and temperature change. Bring in at night or put in a cold frame.   This helps seedling become more resilient to disease and pests. Water  in well once planted and keep watering regularly until they’re well established.

PLANT OUT SEEDLINGS

• Plant sweetcorn in grids of four to aid wind based cross pollination.

• Courgette/pumpkin/cucumber family - they will cope in a shadier spot

• Runner beans, french climbing beans and other legumes - they  need canes or netting to climb up.  Seedlings can be planted out, or direct sow in the ground.

• Chard, kohlrabi, celeriac are all ready to go outside

• Tomatoes - reduce the risk of blight by ensuring there is good airflow around the plants, so keep distance between the plants,  and don’t grow against a shed.  Tomatoes grown inside in greenhouses and poly tunnels are less susceptible to blight as it is a wind borne disease.  

• Sow carrots, radish, spring onions, salad leaves, mange tout, beetroots, and turnips  every few weeks to  allow harvesting of young crops through the season.

• Parsnips and celeriac can sown direct into seed drills outside.  They need a long season to mature.

• Brassicas need fine netting to protect them from cabbage white butterflies and pigeons.

• Plant out any remaining seed potatoes, continue to ‘earth up’ any emerging shoots with soil, or composted manure, to encourage a larger crop.

• Flowers - sunflowers, any wildflowers, cosmos and sweet peas are perfect allotment blooms

MANAGE PESTS AND DISEASES

• Slugs and snails are already a problem, we need more hedgehogs and foxes!  

• Try planting marigolds and nasturtium to attract aphids away from your produce. 

• Protect early strawberries from birds with netting that is wide enough to allow pollinators in. 

• Cover soft fruit plants with netting to protect from birds - this can be done after pollination but before any signs of ripening.  Summer fruiting raspberries need netting, but autumn fruiting don’t.

  
  

WILDLIFE

• We are well into nesting season so watch out for activity in trees and hedges near you and don’t disturb.   

• Leave water dishes and for the bees and the birds. 

• Continue to sow wild flowers, a few in a section on your plot or garden to encourage pollinators.  Try planting asters, camomile, marigolds, oregano, sage, sunflowers, thyme, yarrow and zinnias. The entire daisy family will attract a number of beneficial insects including ladybirds.  

HARVEST

• Continue to harvest rhubarb, and watch out for any flower buds.  Break these off to prevent the plant putting energy into flowering.

• May is the best month for harvesting asparagus.

• The first strawberries will (hopefully!) be ripening in May

• The first radishes and baby carrots will be ready.  Continue to sow every couple of weeks through to autumn.  

• Salad crops: salad leaves, pea shoots will be ready

• Edible flowers: borage and marigold

• Leafy greens: chard and spinach

• 1st broad beans 

  
  

OTHER

Compost all green matter.  Add foliage, leaves and annual weeds to your compost pile, turn the pile to help activate it, and make sure it doesn’t dry out.  Comfrey and nettles not only make a good nutritious ‘tea’ for plants, they also act as compost accelerator.

Reduce watering by mulching the soil.  And it’s far better to water thoroughly a couple of times a week than little and often. 

IN THE GARDEN

• It’s a good time to plant small shrubs, they  will establish quickly, need less watering than larger versions, as well as being a lot cheaper! 

• Plant up ornamental pots and hanging baskets for summer colour.  

• Prune early flowering shrubs once they’ve finished blooming and  plant out herbaceous perennials.   

• Plant out dahlias for late summer/autumn colour and direct sow annuals such as cosmos, poppies and cornflowers for easy summer flowers.

  
  

I’m not a fan of ‘No mow May’,  it takes longer than a month to develop wild flowers in a domestic lawn!  So instead have a ‘Never Mow’ section of your garden, and put areas  throughout your garden and allotment over to wildlife permanently. Sow wildflowers around your shed, make stacks of logs at the back of the beds and borders, an area with leaf piles, a pond for newts, toads and frogs, bird boxes and perhaps a bat box.

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